Stephens Outslugged By Collard In PFL Debut

PFL 1 2022; Esports Stadium, Arlington, Texas

The PFL officially launched it’s fourth-season, and ended the night with a fire cracker of a fight. For the second-consecutive season Clay Collard opened a PFL season hanging a loss on a former UFC fighter via unanimous decision. Last year it was former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis and now this year it was the struggling former featherweight title challenger, Jeremy Stephens. It was pure guts that helped Stephens get outslugged by Collard.

The 35-year old “Lil Heathen” moved up in weight for the first-time since 2012. And while a “loss” is what he walks away with, he showed he still has a lot of firepower left in his hands. However, he IS now 0-6 with a no-contest in his last seven-fights. And that can’t be a good thing for one’s psyche. It’s obvious that Stephens’ power translated up a division, it’s just does he have enough TNT to take these guys out.

Stephens Outslugged By Collard: Breaking It Down

To say it was a back-and-forth fight would be an understatement. Collard finished with landing 145-of-317 total strikes. Most of those were rips to the body and combos, which slowed the Iowa native down. He also scored the fights only takedowns, but didn’t do anything with them as her preferred the fight to remain standing which says something. His chin it flying well under the radar.

Stephens came out of the gates fast, looking to make an impression on his new bosses. For his part, he landed 133-of-179 strikes. While both fighters did sting each other, the 4-1 former boxer for Top Rank showed his chin is younger than his 29-year old body. Might this be the beginning of the end of Stephens’ run in a cage? That’s hard to tell at this point. But it is starting to look like a BJ Penn-esque run, at least on the ledger. But he’s not getting smoked in the cage to be fair.

This one was more the case of Collard’s precision besting Stephens’ power. And because of his hand speed, and flurry of combos Stephens wore more damage. It was by the way, Collard’s fifth consecutive fight that went to the scorecards. And in a league where finishes count most, that game-plan might not get him a million-dollar check in the end.

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